Focusing on the Possibilities for Stimulating Learning and Reading Braille.

 

Introduction

 In common with sighted people, the blind during the last fifty years have enjoyed a continuously increasing range of benefits which have come from the rapid and often bewildering advances in scientific knowledge that have been made in less than a normal life-time. Not the least of these benefits is the increasing volume and variety of braille literature which is becoming available through the development and increasing use of automated methods of production. But while it is highly desirable that this search for yet more efficient ways or producing p books should continue, it is surely no less desirable ( that thought should be given to devising ways of making braille a more satisfying and a more easily accessible ( reading medium. Studies already completed or now under way emphasise the need for a critical review of current methods of teaching braille reading and of the rationale for them. The purpose of this short paper is to describe briefly the research that has been done and to outline the implications of the findings. These implications are relevant, not only to the English-speaking countries in which the researches have been conducted, but wherever braille is used.

The Need for Braille Code Revision

 Investigators in the United States of America (Ashcroft, 1961; Nolan and Kederis, 1969) have shown that much of English-speaking children!s difficulty in learning and reading braille stems directly from the complexity of the contracted code and from certain of its features. The assignment of up to eight meanings to a symbol, the opportunities for reversal and inversion and for confusing upper with lower signs, and the use of short-form word signs infrequently occurring are among the structural features which are troublesome to many beginners, children and adults alike. Furthermore, frequency surveys

carried out in Britain and the U.S.A. have revealed that many of the contractions contribute very little to spacesaving. Their removal from the code would ease learning difficulty and the resulting increase of space would be almost imperceptible. These weaknesses are probably characteristic in varying degrees of contracted codes used by other linguistic groups. There are those, usually the highly competent braille readers, who call for the addition of yet more contractions. However, research findings appear to indicate that any further revision of the code should be in the direction of reducing rather than increasing the number of contracted forms. There will be a point beyond which

the addition of contractions will have no noticeable effect on saving space but will only increase learning difficulty and reading time.

In Britain and elsewhere there is evidence of a growing belief that a simplification of the contracted

codes now in use would be of advantage to readers and producers of braille. The desire for change, however, appears to spring from two rather different and possibly conflicting aims. Teachers regard simplification primarily as a means of reducing learning and reading difficulty whereas the printing houses will understandably tend to seek changes which will facilitate computercontrolled production. It is hoped that any change sought by computer programmers will be adopted only if it also has the approval of braille readers.

Objective evidence which will support or refute the case for a simplified code is now being gathered in England. This is part of a research project on the braille code, extending the use of braille, and the improvement of reading skill which was very recently set up under the joint direction of Dr. M. Tobin, (University of Birmingham) and Professor J.L. Douce, (University of Warwick). I am a Research Fellow at Birmingham closely associated with this investigation. Two experiments have been conducted to obtain some indication of the effect on reading time of using fewer contractions. Experiment 1. The 16 volunteer readers involved had all begun using braille while in a junior school for the blind. Their ages ranged from 20 to 65 years and they represented a wide range of occupations. They read silently two different 900-word passages, one in standard contracted code and the other in a modified code which contained only 57 out of the 190 contractions normally used. The modified version of a passage occupied 8% more space than the standard version. Comprehension was not tested. A balanced design was used in allocating passages and braille versions to readers. In order to maximise negative effects, readers had no knowledge beforehand of the modified code being used. Despite the adverse conditions the difference between mean speeds (94 w.p.m. on the standard version and 77 w.p.m. on the modified version) was found on statistical analysis to be non-significant. Experiment 2. A similar experiment was later con ducted with the same group of volunteers but under condi tions more favourable to the readers. The code used on this occasion comprised 73 contractions and increased standard braille space by 6%. As before, two versions of two different passages (each about 1,250 words in length) were assigned in a balanced design. But this time readers were able to practice with the modified code during the two weeks immediately before the timed test.

Contrary to the forecasts of some of the readers, mean speed rose from 89 w.p.m. on the standard code passages to 95 w.p.m. on the modified versions. Statistical analysis showed that the difference between the two versions was non-significant. This result was considered to be most satisfactory, indicating that the group read the standard and modified code presentations at approximately the same speed. Further experiments are being designed in which sub jects will read orally as well as silently and be tested for comprehension. The data so far obtained does seem to support the view that the removal of the many weak con tractions in the English code would only slightly increase braille space and make no difference to reading speed. At Warwick University, Dr. J.M. Gill is undertaking a large-scale survey of the frequency of occurrence of con tractions in English literature. On the basis of this survey it is confidently expected that it will be possible to devise a simplified code that will be less of a burden on the memory and that will be easier perceptually and cognitively to learn and use. Such a code could bring braille reading within the reach of many who have been unable to cope adequately with the complexities of the present code, especially less able children and adults who have lost their sight in later life.

Teaching Methods 

In addition to code simplification there is clearly a need for improved teaching programmes, greater teaching expertise and better designed training materials. Indeed, it is in this direction that most surely lies the possibility of raising reading standards and of more widely extending the use of braille. There is a growing realisation among educators that the teaching of reading in schools should continue for a longer time and to a higher level than is generally the case at present, and that the reading courses available to adults are often inadequate. The effectiveness of new teaching approaches has been demonstrated by experiments recently carried out in the United States and in Britain.

 

Experiments and Techniques for Increasing Braille Reading Speed.

In the United States, Vearl McBride (1972) trained a group of highly-motivated adults to use techniques for p rapid reading which had been found to be very effective with print readers. By the end of the two weeks training, the mean speed for the braille readers had risen ( from 138 to 710 w.p.m. or twice the rate at which print is generally read. Despite the difficulty of assessing the validity of this dramatic result, there seems no doubt that the kind of training given did produce sub stantial improvement in reading speed, as was later con firmed by other American investigators who used McBride!s methods but under scientifically controlled conditions. psw fBSm p In 1977, I tried out some of the techniques used by McBride and others in a controlled experiment at Lickey Grange School for the Blind, near Birmingham. Unlike the American projects, the children receiving the training were not volunteers and were not even aware that they were taking part in an experiment, for it was a particular aim to conduct it under the conditions in which the p teacher would work if the training programme were an established part of the curriculum. ( Although not explicitly stated in their published reports, the American training programmes appear to have rested on three assumptions about braille reading:

 (a) that scanning techniques used by the sighted are equally effective for the blind; 

(b) that braille readers read at a pace which is well within the limits of their perceptual capacity; and

(c) that the sensitivity of fingers can be increased by training and practice. Although doubtful about their soundness, these assump tions were tentatively accepted. The experimental group received training weekly for twenty weeks. While the control group made only minimal gains, the experimental group's mean speeds in oral and silent reading increased by 36% and 82% respectively without significant loss of comprehension. The teachers partici pating in the experiment were agreed that the experimental group would not have made such substantial progress with out the stimulation, the challenge and the systematic training provided by the course. Children who had been apathetic and casual about reading became markedly more interested and purposeful. Indeed, the largest individual gain was made by a girl who chanced to meet me just before one of the earlier training sessions and asked, Do we have to come to do that reading again?

Braille Courses for Adults who Lose Their Sight After Leaving School

It is probably the experience of most countries that it is recently blinded adults who are particularly in need of much improved facilities for learning braille. In Britain a number of carefully prepared braille courses are available, but I consider most of them to be un suitable for many adult beginners. None of the courses provides the pre-braille tactile training that is so essential at whatever age braille reading is begun. The learning steps are too short and too many symbols are introduced at each step. The vocabularies used are often too advanced and the material is generally dull and con trived, it being the aim of the authors to use as many as possible of the new signs just learnt rather than to arouse interest in the content of the passage being read. A strugling beginner is hardly likely to be impelled to go on when at the end of the first lesson, he meets a sentence such as, "A babe can do every bad deed". The perceptual and cognitive burdens imposed by this kind of teaching approach are too great for many beginners, and so it is not sur prising that they soon give up the attempt to become readers.

An entirely new approach in Britain which is proving to be very effective has been developed by Dr. Tobin. After several years of research, a programmed course of instruction was designed which enables the learner to progress steadily and confidently without the assistance of a visiting teacher. Simple instructions, guidance and encouragement are given on a pre-recorded tape, and the course is self-pacing and self-correcting. The further development and extended use of audio programmed instruc tion would seem to be very worthwhile. There is already evidence of the success of adults who otherwise would P probably never have learnt to read braille either because no competent teacher was available or because they had m found the traditional methods and materials too difficult. 

Conclusion 

The extent to which teaching methods and reading standards can be improved is dependent on continued research effort in the areas discussed in this paper and  also on the investigation of other and highly relevant areas. Important among the latter are the study and evaluation of different teaching approaches, consideration of the use of colour and embossed illustration to enhance the appeal of braille books, and research which would yield more precise information about the braille reading process. Because of the limitations of touch perception, it would seem unrealistic to hope that braille can ever be as efficient a reading medium as print. Nevertheless, the results of work done so far indicate not just the possibility, but the strong probability that braille reading will become easier to master and more widely accessible.